Oil painting on an iPad: Oxymoron or art?

"Throughout history a small number of artists have rejected both palette knives and brushes. A few used their fingers to spread the paint. Artists turned to such primal means for various reasons, including display of skill, experimental playfulness, or nose-thumbing at convention. The young Leonardo's use of his fingers can be linked to the properties of the newly available medium of oil painting. ... It should not surprise us that he played with the tackiness of the new oil medium, palpating the paint as he sought new effects." ~ Seeing Through Paintings by Andrea Kirsch and Rustin S. Levenson, p133/4. ~ It’s apparent that Kirsch and Levenson were not referencing Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” but perhaps the initial youngster-like steps he took to get to the height of his painting career. The art of finger painting in and of itself was rediscovered and popularized by American educator, Ruth Faison Shaw in 1926 while in Rome, Italy teaching at the Shaw School. Since then, finger painting has become a major part of early art education, and used as a significant tool in psychiatric therapy. Earlier this year, in April and May, when the Apple iPad was being launched, I was fascinated with the technology and penned two posts: "The iPad Chalenge: Cat, Dog or Man," and "The iPad Challenge: Part Deux." Frankly, I was impressed with the multitude of inexpensive applications for this gadget, which seemed to be surfacing daily – everything from reading and games to writing and music. I still don’t have an iPad, but I love to paint, and recently I discovered that there is an app called “Brushes”; it has all of the fun of finger painting but none of the mess, and it not only works on an iPad but is available for an iPhone and iPod touch. In case anybody wants to know (hint, hint) this is definitely going on my “wish list.” 

The iPad Challenge: Part Deux

On Friday, April 28, 2010, just four days after I posted The iPad Challenge:Cat, Dog or Man? Apple’s nifty little device made its way into the hands of its one-millionth customer, and as of yesterday, 3G and Wi-Fi pre-orders began for international markets with the first round of shipping to begin on May 28 to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom - with more international markets to follow in July.

In the Cat, Dog or Man challenge, you were asked to determine who would best benefit from using Apple’s iPad based on the viral videos that were being circulated around the Internet.

According to your comments, it appears the ‘Cat’ won paws down, with pianist Lang Lang coming in a close second.

However, since the last post, two more contenders have entered the competition and they might just alter your opinions.

Our first competitor is a toddler who is barely 2.5 years of age. According to her father and the Telstar Logistics’ YouTube account where the video appears, he shares the following information: “A fascinating UI experiment. My daughter likes playing with my iPhone, but this was her very first encounter with an iPad. As you'll see, she took right to it... although she too wonders why it doesn't have a camera!"

Our second contender, 99 year-old Virginia Campbell was filmed at the Mary Woods Retirement Community in Oregon. Virginia is the widow of former Lake Oswego Mayor C. Herald Cambell, and this was her very first encounter with the unit, plus she’s never owned a computer or even a Kindle, and to top it off Virginia suffers from glaucoma.

Time to cast your votes – this one’s a real tough choice.

TODDLER



VIRGINIA CAMPBELL

The iPad Challenge: Cat, Dog or Man?

It has been billed as “The Best way to see the web, email, photos and video – hands down.” It’s the Apple iPad and it has taken the country by storm because of its pocketbook-friendly price of $499, a multi-touch screen and the ability to run thousands of apps.

It won’t exactly replace the PC, but give it a few more generations and who knows?

Well, it didn’t take long for this “magical” device to find its way into the paws and hands of diverse users.

Over the last few days, “Iggy” the cat, “Chloe” the Corgi and classical concert pianist Lang Lang (during an encore at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall) test-drove this little 1.5 pound highly advanced technology, and the results are as diverse as the users.

Who is best suited to benefit from the iPad?

View the videos and let’s take a vote.

CAT



DOG



MAN